This idea of capitulation is not really borne out by recent results. A late goal to save a point v Everton, ditto v Wigan. Hanging in v City and then scoring three in seven minutes to take the points. Even if performances have been up and down, there is clear evidence of some resilience amongst these players. This time last season Spurs had capitulated dramatically; this time I don't see any signs of it at all. I don't get the negativity.
Watching Arsenal the last few weeks (only saw a little of the Man U game) has driven me half insane. A team of whiners, led by the whiner in chief, and a crowd which knows just the right aggrieved, screaming tone has turned the usual crap assortment of refs into jelly and gotten them undeserved decision after undeserved decision. I understand their goal today was offside. I watched the ref handing out yellow cards to Man U like confetti. I watched an Arsenal player whine long and hard after a routine foul, which resulted in a long talking to to the Fulham player. Arsenal, of course, prompty scored on the free kick. Sagna today really took the cake. Watch fifty PL games and you won't see a purer, more 100% pen in a more dangerous position than Sagna's. Watch his foot miss the ball completely. Watch it whack against van Persie (?)s ankle hard. Watch him topple, clearly due to Sagna's foot. All while he has the ball five feet in front of the goal. Watch Sagna beg, whine and shake his head, as if he's just suffered the greatest injustice in the history of the world. It makes me sick. As to us: well, we're a bunch of choke artists. Give us a chance to seal the deal and we blow it like clockwork. How many times in a row has this happened? I have trouble blaming AVB for this because he's won things, while we have a long history of blowing it. It's got to change, but it's hard to say how you create a winning mentality. Also, I disagree about Dembele. He's been our key player in the sense that we've won more often when he's played than any other player, including Bale. I think he exerts a lot of influence, some kind of strength of will, which has been key in us beating big teams this year, which we never used to do. Dembele, at any rate, has two wins and a draw in his last three games against Man U (though the same is true of Dempsey). Vertonghen has been superb and Lloris very good.
Arsenal weren't lucky at all, they fully deserved their point as did United. It was a thoroughly entertaining game and would have been harsh if either walked away empty handed but neither did enough to win. United restricted Arsenal to long range efforts 2nd half but that first goal was always key.
I didn't watch or listen to the match but wasn't Arsenal's goal off side? If it was District then it was lucky wasn't it? I fail to see how not.
Yes, it was at least half a yard off. I thought the game itself was fairly even. However, Dowd was far too ready to issue cautions to Utd players, but strangely reluctant to be as harsh on the Goons' players, for the same (or worse) offences.
Then it shouldn't have counted so Arsenal were lucky to have the "goal" awarded. I fail to see how District and many of his fellow Chelsea supporters are so blind that they cannot tell the difference between skill and luck. Their consistency in this matter is just as consistent as Chelsea's luck.
United created the better chances and really should have scored more, for all Arsenal's possession they didn't create an awful lot and the zip in their countering left them in the second half and pass, pass, pass.... pass took over. If QPR were motivated to think a draw was an important point I'm sure they'd have a good chance of keeping Arsenal out, just as they did to us and you guys but sadly what's a disjointed group at the best of times has nothing to play for now.
Am I clutching at straws to think that now the pressure is off, they may actually play to their potential. Townsend certainly has motivation in that game! Don't relegated teams often start playing better once that are down mathematically?
Look at the table,Manchester first and second,London third,fourth and fifth,Liverpool sixth and seventh and all the rest don't really matter do they?
There's all sorts of theories we can come up with, 'Arry I'm sure would be fairly pleased to see that after being sacked by us we finished lower in the league, some players might want to play well to get a good move in June, others might already be thinking about what cocktails they're going to order on the beach this summer. Normally I'd be more optimistic but I think it's more likely that Arsenal will benefit from a poor QPR side, although they remain dodgy against height and particularly in set pieces so Samba and the rest could cause some problems. It all seems to be falling Arsenal's way though lately, I can't see it changing in the last 3 games.
If the ref gives a goal that was scored illegally, then that is luck in my book. I don't see how Arsenal 'deserved' a point when they couldn't score a legal goal. The match was pretty even but that is a different issue. Sagna should have been sent off too.
Power,I've given up trying to teach Chelsea supporters the difference between luck and skill,they just cannot grasp it.
Can't blame teams for getting lucky. You create your own luck in this game. Our problem is the likes of Ade are either 3 yards offside therefore a blatant flag going up or looking like he's not interested in making the run in the first place so yards away from the ball anyway.
No one's blaming them and you don't create your own luck, that's no more true than "it all evens out over a season" - it would take a higher powers intervention to ensure that but I think God's a bit busy for settling out poor decisions and luck in the Premier League. Just in our last two games, Dempsey went through(and missed), as was Bale on another occassion both fairly close decisions correctly called and yet Bale went clean through against City when they were defending high up the pitch only to be wrongly brought back for offside. It's not luck, it's just poor officiating when they get it wrong, this isn't milimetres we're talking about they're often a decent sized gap and if they can't get those right how can we praise them when they do get a close call correct? Essentially what they show is that some of them are either guessing at anything where the last man and attacker are within a yard of eachother or they are being as influenced as refs into giving decisions a certain way based on reasons other than what they saw. It's depressing because there are plenty of difficult calls to make but in some of the recent ones they couldn't have wished for an easier call. Valencia's in the build up for the first goal against Villa and Walcott's yesterday, for example, were both high up the pitch and early in the game meaning that they had no trouble keeping up with play, there was only one attacker making a run and it was easy to see exactly when the ball was played for Arsenal's whilst the Valencia one he was stood in an offside position, not even running! Anyway, rant over. I do think Arsenal have enjoyed a bit of luck in recent weeks but I'm not trying to take anything away from them, they've played really well at times and even when they haven't they've still battled hard. As ever my beef is with the officials.
I understand what you are saying...as per usual I'm playing the devil's advocate. Maybe that's why we are not getting pens either? Not enough happening in the opponents box?
Spot on. Arsenal took the initiative and with a bit of luck got the goal they deserved. Draw was a fair result irrespective of decisions.
I look at it two ways. Either they can give up as they have since Wigan or restore a bit of pride and at least play for moves elsewhere. There's no doubt QPR have the quality to hurt Arsenal, its just whether or not they turn up But that's just it though, "luck" is subjective. TMT's definition of luck is different to mine. At 1-0 Arsenal had a succession of chances and the final ball was missing from Ramsey to kill off the game. Out of nowhere one player makes a mistake and it's 1-1. Sagna was lucky to be in the pitch I agree but United have scored at least 5 offside goals this season. You have to look at the bigger picture TMT don't give up on us
Dipstick Line,how could I ever leave you and Angelordrivel? What would you do without me to guide you and to bring you down to earth by saying you're the luckiest team on the planet? But in an earlier you post you state Arsenal were not lucky and now you state that they were lucky,you see the problem I have with the average Chelsea supporter?
